In Ohio, the final vote on SB 5 was 53-44; it’s already passed the Ohio Senate, but changes made to the bill require another quick vote on the legislation either today or tomorrow. This particular legislation goes a bit farther than the groundbreaking Wisconsin union reform bill; it redefines collective bargaining privileges for public sector union employees to cover wages only, institutes merit pay for public sector union workers, and makes strikes by public sector employees illegal. Most interestingly, it extends collective bargaining reforms to police and firefighter unions, which is quite possibly a reaction to the rather contemptible activities and passive-aggressive threats done and made by Big Labor in Wisconsin.

And, of course, a few days ago the Florida state House passed HB 1021, which bans the automatic collection of public sector union dues. Slowly but surely, reform is coming to help embattled states fight the entrenched partisan interests strangling trade and wealth generation from within…

Unions Threaten Boycott Of Businesses Who Do Not Declare Their Support for “Worker’s Rights”

All across Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Employee Union is circulating a letter demanding that local businesses post a sign in their window that declares their support for “workers rights.” The repercussions of failing to comply with the WSEU is the addition of that business to a boycott list.

After not complying with the union demands, one business received a letter that said:

“It is unfortunate that you have chosen ‘not’ to support public workers rights in Wisconsin. In recent past weeks you have been offered a sign by a public employee…these signs simply said, ‘This Business Supports Workers Rights,’ a simple, subtle and we feel non-controversial statement gives the facts at this time.”

Yeah, nothing controversial about that.

Jim Parrett, Field Representative for AFSCME Council 24, is quoted in the article complaining about “threatening phone calls.” The irony is striking given that Mr. Parrett is part of a mechanism whose main goal is to threaten, bully, and intimidate businesses.

In the article, Parrett directs all questions to Marty Beil, the now notorious head of the Wisconsin State Employee Union. This signals that this campaign of threats against businesses is orchestrated from the top and represents a statewide strategy by labor unions to pit Wisconsinites against one another using the rhetoric of class warfare.

By demanding that businesses place these signs in their window or face the consequences is something right out of Orwell. In these troubled economic times, Wisconsinites ought not be looking to hurt one another through vindictive actions such as boycotts that could lead to layoffs or even small businesses closing their doors.

This type of intimidation will not overturn the Budget Repair Bill, recall Scott Walker, or recall the State Senate. It will only serve to hurt people and drive a wedge further between the people of Wisconsin. It is now clear more than ever that this battle is less and less about workers, and all about union bosses and their fear of losing dues and power. Hence, these shameful tactics.

Alinsky Nation.

Leftwing political payback

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"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." — Cicero, 106 BC-43 BC